Lencarta, a British lighting company, have announced a wireless remote that promises to allow “any Nikon DSLR to be used at any shutter speed with any flash”.
The trigger, called the Mach 1N, claims to allow clean synchronisation all the way up to 1/8000 second while using a technology that is distinct from both PocketWizard’s HyperSync and Nikon’s FP Sync. Lencarta boasts that the Mach 1N “does not have the limitations” of such systems and their product should not to be “confused” with existing high-speed triggers from other brands that use them.
With fast shutter speeds, it is easier to use flashes to overpower the sun outdoors. According to the manufacturer, the Mach 1N allows “literally any shutter speed to be used” so that the effect of ambient light may be reduced “by a full 5 stops”.
Indoors, the quick times allow a photographer to freeze action in their pictures. As company spokesman Garry Edwards explained, many people “pay extra” for short flash durations in studio lights. But Lencarta’s new product will apparently make such benefits “irrelevant” and render “expensive flash heads and expensive portable flash kits with short flash durations pretty well redundant.”
The Mach 1N is transceiver-based, so any unit can work as either a transmitter or a receiver. The specified operating range is 110 metres, with 16 channels and two groups. Each device is powered by a pair of AAA batteries and has the same exterior design to the CononMark Eagle Leopard trigger, with mini-USB input, a hotshoe, a large LCD screen, various sync ports and a tripod mount.
A set of two costs £199.99, available now directly from Lencarta. A Canon version is planned for the future.
Can a new wireless triggering accessory really change the way people buy flash units? Share your thoughts in the comments below.